Matthew: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist

Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Matthew
Review: Warren Carter has produced an introduction to the gospel of Matthew which should be both accessible to a wide audience and instructive to biblical specialists. Carter's concerns are primarily narrative. He has made significant progress in applying Chapman's model of narrative structure along with the narrative theory of Iser to Matthew's gospel. For those who are not initiated in issues of narrative hermeneutics, Carter explains and applies his method very clearly and deliberately. While interpreting the final form of the text, Carter does not ignore historical concerns. The implied reader of Matthew's gospel is the intended audience of the first century. Therefore, the informed reader of Matthew's narrative should know what they knew. To this end, Carter supplies a reasonable reconstruction of this audience and attempts to bring twentieth century readers as close as possible to the same reading location. A good example is his explanation of the likely tensions which existed between Jews and Christians at the time Matthew was written. The often harsh anti-Jewish polemic of this gospel is then carefully placed within this context. At the same time, Carter is aware that twentieth century readers bring their own life experiences to the text. This is not a verse by verse commentary, but a thorough exploration of the gospel's plot, characters, and events. Some readers may feel that certain parts of the story, particlarly the resurrection and crucifixion, receive too little attention. Nevertheless, this is a first-rate application of narrative criticism to the gospel of Matthew, which may also serve as a model for reading the other gospels.